


Death Of A Hero

by ErrorCode_21891711



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Gen, no respawn, perma-death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-20
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:48:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27646384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ErrorCode_21891711/pseuds/ErrorCode_21891711
Summary: They thought Tommy died a hero on the 16th of November but that isn't truly what happened. He didn't want to be a hero, he wanted his home back.
Relationships: Clay | Dream & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Dave | Technoblade & TommyInnit, Jschlatt & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Toby Smith | Tubbo & TommyInnit, TommyInnit & Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF), Tommyinnit & Wilbur Soot
Comments: 21
Kudos: 450





	1. Destruction Of A Galaxy

Techno had been right in some way shape or form during the final battle for L’manburg, but one thing he was wrong about was that Tommy didn’t want to die a hero, all he ever wanted was his home back. That was all he wanted the place he and Wilbur raised from the ground up he wanted it back and he wanted everything to go back before all the war all the fighting were they could all live in blissful peace for a little while longer. Tommy didn’t know how to feel after the death of the withers and after everything happened, after Techno fled, Phil showed up and injured Wilbur but luckily enough did not kill him.

Although he thought there could have been a better outcome he thought this one was for the best, faking his death during the battle of the withers by using an invisibility potion. The amount of blood he had left behind was rather large, there were practical puddles but he could treat his injuries with healing potions. He watched from afar as everyone realized he was nowhere to be seen, he watched as they frantically searched for him calling out his name.

He was a little even heart broken when Dream, Sapnap, Karl and those who were originally against them started to help. Phil showed up with Wilbur shortly after and quickly set Wilbur down somewhere safe and began helping. He stayed until sunrise and then quickly left trying his best not to leave a blood trail. Once he was sure he was far enough from L’manburg he blocked himself into a cave and blocked it off on the inside and sat down his back against the wall and breathed heavily as he held his broken arm.

Tommy wasn’t an idiot like most assumed when it came to injuries. He knew how to treat them but he always said he didn’t so he didn’t have to help out, he never liked the look of blood on his friends and always tried to avoid treating their injuries. He pulled out one of the man healing potions he had in his inventory and downed it before ripping off his armor and then pulling off his short sleeved shirt and the long sleeved shirt he wore under it.

He winced seeing the cut on his side he had gotten when he was fighting back against Dream at some point during the battle. He breathed heavily watching the wound slowly stitch itself together from the healing potion, the sight quite gruesome. He looked into his inventory and pulled out an ender chest setting it down beside himself and pulling out some bandages that he always kept inside, he wrapped them around his left arm which was broken and then picked up his long sleeved shirt, using it to make a makeshift sling and tying the ends of the sleeves at the back of his neck.

He sighed leaning his head back against the wall, he had a lot of food in his inventory along with more potions, his weapons and some golden apples. Working with one arm wouldn’t be a problem since he’s had both broken legs and arms a lot during the past few wars that have happened on the server and they’ve had a lot of wars. Tommy sometimes wished he’d stayed neutral during everything and all of this instead of getting overly involved in all of this mess, he wished instead of following Wilbur after his exile he should have just wandered and created himself a small cottage a distance away from everything but he didn’t. The thought had crossed his mind after his exile and he had been very tempted to go through with it, to walk away and have his own lands but Wilbur had needed him more than ever.

And look where it got him, making a last minute choice to fake his death after the battle with the withers. The fact that withers make things decay will help in them thinking he’s dead so he can have some form of peace for a while, he wished Phil had shown up sooner rather than later to stop Wilbur and maybe things wouldn’t have turned out this way but he wasn’t going to blame this on Phil. He had wanted so badly to stay and run to Phil, to have his father hug and hold him and tell him that everything was going to be alright but those would have white lies.

L’manburg was gone and Techno had been the cause and Dream had helped temporarily until he realized the damage two withers could cause to the surrounding land. Wilbur and Dream had taken L’manburg away and Tommy was so sure he’d never be able to forgive them but he needed time to clear his head and think, and just generally be away from everything else, **everyone else** even Tubbo.

He sighed and closed his eyes. His arm would take probably a week or two to heal with the healing potions added to it was his last thought before he let his eyes fall shut.

[-----]

Waking up with a huge headache and still covered in his own blood and the blood of others was no fun, it was dried up and clinging to him and his pants. He was glad he kept spare clothes in his ender chest too. He shakily stood up grimacing as he looked down at his short sleeve shirt on the ground, seeing it practically drenched in blood most of it probably his own. He lifted it and threw it away from himself, he started a fire and made a hole in the caves ceiling, he’d put a trap door over it later, he broke and picked up his ender chest with his pickaxe, stashing it away in his inventory.

He opened a small doorway in the wall that closed him off from the outside world. He looked around ignoring the slight pain in his arm as he walked in a single direction following the sound of running water and was happy to find he was near a river. He sat down on the edge and pulled out his ender chest, setting it beside himself and pulling off the long sleeve shirt he normally wore and set it on the ground beside the ender chest and pulled the chest open grabbing a piece of cloth he could use to wash himself off.

Cleaning himself off was a little hard with a broken arm but he got things to work out, shivering in the cold water but once he was no longer covered in blood and sat down for a bit to dry off he got redressed in clean clothes which was a plain black tank top and dark grey shorts. He picked up his dirty long sleeve shirt and sat on the edge near the river and drenched the shirt in the water before he rang it out and drenched it again, repeating this several times before most of the blood was no longer clinging to the fabric of the shirt.

He picked the barely wet shirt up, alongside his ender chest and walked back to his cave. He left his shirt outside hanging over a tree branch in the sun and sat on the cold stone floor in silence, he sighed and pulled out his phone checking the amount of messages he had but not reading any of them, wincing when he saw the numbers. **542**.

Most of them were asking where he was and were all from last night and stopped around an hour ago. He noticed it was no midday and sighed once again running his hand through his hair, he was happy he had taken out the tracker on his phone a long time ago when Dream had first given it to him. He wanted to be alone for a reason even if they were worried, but he did still feel a pang of guilt sitting here completely fine while they sat back at L’manburg’s ruin’s morning the death of their supposed hero that Techno tried to label him. But he didn’t want the title of a hero, he just wanted his home back.

Tommy reached into his ender chest and pulled out a jukebox and Mellohi and began playing the disc listening to the song play while nodding his head to the beat. He was oddly calm after everything just happened but he just round it up to him not full processing everything that just happened, he stopped nodding his head to the soft beat when he felt something fall against his knee and looked down seeing multiple small dots on his shorts, he blinked watching as tears fell from his eyes, as the edges of his vision became blurry. 

He hadn’t noticed he had been crying.

He breathed in only for his breath to hitch as the tears continued to cascade down his cheeks, he lifted a hand to wipe them away but more soon replaced them. He sniffled softly and rubbed uselessly at his eyes wanting for the tears to go away but they didn’t, he checked his phone when it vibrated a signal that someone was talking in chat.

**Tubbo: Are you happy Techno?**

Tommy felt his heart stop for a few seconds seeing the message, he for some odd reason knew why Tubbo had sent that message and the tears continued stronger than they were before.

He sat there for hours on ends watching as that message flew by as others began to talk from where ever they are, the urge to type and just tell them he was okay was strong but if they did they’d start looking and wouldn’t stop until he was found and they knew he was okay even if he told them he was perfectly fine which he was with his broken arm. Soon night came and most said their good nights in the chat before going to bed. Tommy had a strong urge to return to the crater that was L’manburg and picked up his armor and sword, he also pulled out a torch and had a lantern with him but didn’t keep it on just in case it gave off too much light.

Putting on his armor was a lot harder with just one broken arm, in the end he only wore his leggings, boots and helmet and set out to see the damage of his home. The walk through the woods was a little scarier than it used to be but he knew he could still handle a mob even with a broken arm. Standing a few feet from the edge of the crater made his heart sink at seeing the damage, his gaze going everywhere until he stumbled closer looking into the crater below.

Most of the debris had been moved towards the walls of the crater leaving a open space in the middle where a gravestone sat with flowers surrounding it, standing before it was Phil, Techno and Wilbur accompanied by Niki, Eret, Fundy, Quackity, Dream, Sapnap, George and Karl. all of their expressions ranged from sorrowful, to angry to just blank. Tubbo, Dream and Techno were the few who had just blank empty expressions while Niki, Quackity and Sapnap were full on sobbing. Wilbur looked like he was in disbelief, bandaged heavily. George, Sapnap, Fundy and Phil just looked on with sorrow filled expressions.

“Are you happy Techno!” Everything was so quiet that Tubbo’s words were so clear. “You told him, ‘You wanna be a hero, then you can die like one’ so are you fucking happy” Tubbo hissed his words anger filled and jabbing. “You were right you know, good things never fucking happen to heroes” Tubbo hissed his finale words before he turned on his heels and stomped away Eret, Niki and Fundy following. Soon after was Dream, Sapnap, George, Karl and Quackity leaving Techno and Wilbur there with Phil.

Phil was standing a in front of the gravestone, Techno kneeling to his right and Wilbur kneeling to his left. Phil had either of his hands on their shoulders respectively. 

“I’m am so unbelievably disappointed in the both of you” Phil whispered, Tommy watched practically breathless. “I want to be mad, but I can’t. I know Tommy wouldn’t want me to be”

“I remember, the first day you brought him home” Techno said quietly. “He was only 13 maybe even older and was practically skin and bones, a scrawny little thing and so unbelievably scared” Techno lifted his hands pulling off his crown and setting it on the ground beside the gravestone, he then pulled off his cape setting it behind the gravestone.

“It took us a month to get him to trust us,” Wilbur added, tears cascading down his cheeks, his hands clenched against the ground. “After he realized we wanted him to stay he practically clung to us” Wilbur laughed.

“Followed both you like a baby duck” Phil chuckled halfheartedly, Tommy couldn’t see it but Phil was crying, from the way his voice shook it was obvious. Phil crouched taking Wilbur’s hand into his own and helping him stand wrapping a wing around his back. Techno stood alongside both of them, Phil wrapping his other wing around his back and they made their way out of the crater.

Tommy left soon after that. He didn’t want to get spotted, it hurt to see them like this but he wanted his alone time, he wanted time to think.

[-----]

He let days go by mostly using his time to expand his small cave and created an indoor farm so he didn’t have to go outside. He took a page out of Techno’s book and made a potato farm with a wheat farm too, he had a lot of apples from grabbing wood to. He created an armor stand for his armor since he won’t be needing it for a while, he didn’t plan on getting into any conflict or hunting mobs just peaceful alone time. His mind wandered back to six days ago where he saw the gravestone in the crater and everything.

He couldn’t lie he was interested in what they planned on doing with the L’manburg now. But right now that didn’t matter, he was away from there and needed to stop thinking about it. He needed to stop remembering it for a while and just needed to enjoy the peace he had now. He had so much free time on his hands that he never really realized how much things he could get done within just a few hours.

The cave he settled into had been expanded inwards in the small hill he had found the cave at and there was a staircase leading down slightly. The area he made was somewhere between 15 to 20 blocks in a square and 5 to 7 blocks tall. The entrance on the inside was decorated with a wooden archway and he had switched out the floor near it with wood the walls now changed to stone brick. His wheat and potato farms were in the far corner of the rather large space.

Tommy sighed and stood to full height picking up his pickaxe and deciding it was best to get some ores just in case he needed more resources, it was better to be safe than sorry. The room he expanded had a ladder in the other corner opposite to his farms that led down, it was a bit hard to get down but he did his best and tried to get everything to work out even if he only had one arm to work with. His broken arm didn’t hurt anymore and he could move it around a little but didn’t want to get ahead of himself and start using it only for the pain to come back. He’d let it heal for another day or two before he took off the makeshift sling using his long sleeved shirt.

He was still wearing just the black tanktop and grey shorts. He began wandering the seemingly endless caves placing torches here and there with the acational mob to slay but that wasn’t much of a problem as he thought it’d be which was good because he didn’t want to struggle with killing mobs. At some point during his mining trip he got bored and decided to turn tail and return back to the main part of his base.

He had never realized how suffocating things could be back with the others, being alone and able to think was nice especially without the constant threats of war bearing down on him from ever which direction because apparently war was the only way to solve every conflict even if it was minor as a pet. Even if he did miss Henry nothing good came out of the conflict other than pain, the countless injuries he’s had because of these wars was honestly stupid and the amount of mining he’s had to do after to gain back all his items was also tedious and a little annoying.

Tommy sighed as he dropped his pickaxe onto the ground and flopped gently onto his bed. He stared at the ceiling for what felt like hours but was really only minutes, his mind was surprisingly empty, devoid of thoughts and Tommy didn’t entirely understand why he felt so overly calm. His mind was usually never this empty, always plagued with the thoughts of his next moves, of fighting, of war. It was surprising how clear his mind was and he couldn’t lie. It was a little overwhelming realizing how much his thoughts passed by and how much he spent his time overthinking about the war that was finally over. He had so much free time that he could properly think now.

He couldn’t stop the frown that pulled at his lips as he realized how much he still missed his friends, how he missed their voices. Despite most of the conflict that has happened between all of them he couldn’t help but miss everyone even those who were his enemies like Dream or even Bad and Sapnap it was an odd thing really, how much blind trust he put in these people.

Tommy huffed and stood up pushing the door to his cave open and letting it fall close behind himself. Stepping out into the morning sun was nice, he hadn’t realized he’d woken up quite early for his mining session, he sighed and began walking around changing around his inventory as he went to try and figure out what to do to entertain himself for the time being. He stopped when he heard something and turned.

He was a little surprised to come face to face with a Bee, he blinked at the fuzzy Bee and it blinked back the buzzing of its wings the only noise he could hear besides the soft ruffling of the trees. Tommy watched as the Bee turned and flew away, Tommy didn’t know why but he followed after it, walking for a few minutes they came to a stop at the edge of a meadow filled with flowers.

Tommy watched as the Bee moved over to a red flower, he turned his gaze to look around the meadow at all the other Bee’s moving around from flower to flower and couldn’t help but smile fondly, Tubbo would have been so excited to see all of these Bee’s. Tommy moved forward and sat down in a relatively clear space with no flowers. He picked a flower and slowly began to create a flower crown intertwining the stems of the flowers.

Once he was finished he looked at it in his hands, he could tell he was smiling and couldn’t help but be reminded of how Tubbo and Niki had taught him how make flower crowns, he had practiced for hours just to get it right so he could show them but in the end that time never came.

He looked back up when he felt something bump his head and blinked at a small Bee barely bigger than his hand. He huffed and lifted the crown onto his head then lifted his hand out to the Bee, he watched as he sat down on his hand it’s wings folding and the Bee closing its eyes. “Well who might you be?” Tommy asked quietly not to disturb the Bee. He’s always seen Tubbo talk to them like they could understand or responde which was funny but it wasn’t like he didn’t do the same for Henry.

He was a little surprised when another small Bee bumped into his ear before landing on his shoulder. He laughed lightly and lowered his hand into his lap to stare at the small Bee. “I’m gonna name you Corn” He grinned, the Bee opened its eyes to look at him blinking for a few seconds before it nuzzled into his hand, He turned to the other Bee on his shoulder. “And your name will be Butter”

Butter blinked at him but went back to nuzzling their head into his shoulder. He smiled and stood up noticing the sun was high up in the sky and he silently wondered how long he'd been there. He returned shortly to his base a little surprised that the two Bee’s he had named stuck to following him and not returning to their hives, not that he was complaining. He quickly made a bee hive since he had collected some honeycomb a while ago from some different bee hives.

He picked the wheat and potatoes from his farms and began organizing the ores he had gotten from his late morning mine session without knowing.

[-----]

Days went by and pretty soon a week turned from that to two, then to three and before anyone knew it a month went by since he technically faked his death. The more he thought about it the more his irrational fear came and told him they’d hate him after what he’d done that they’d shun him and never want to see him again, the guilt was eating away at him but he couldn’t return just yet.

With the ability to now use both his arms that helped with his recovery he began to gather more materials mostly, he had a lot more food now to being able to harvest and replant his crops faster than before.

He knew he shouldn't be worrying about his crops and more so about the fact of whether his friends will accept him back or not. He was so afraid that they wouldn’t want him back that he might have had a bit of a nightmare about it, about everyone yelling at him about how he could just up and fake his own death during such a dramatic time. He felt so incredibly selfish.

He had wanted to go back after three weeks but his irrational fears were getting the better of him and holding him back so he decided to wait a bit longer and see where things go. Over the past days he’d changed up his small cave a bit changing out the walls and flooring for black stone and other dark colors, he expanded it and he even had two new Bee’s to his hive. Of course Corn and Butter’s were still there with the addition of Titan and Willow, he also couldn’t forget about the white fox he found not too long ago that he named Nina after Niki since he remembered Niki had a fox.

He sighed and rolled over letting himself fall off his bed and onto the ground on his stomach, he snorted when he felt Nina nuzzle her snout against his forehead and lifted a hand pushing her away gently and sitting on crossed legged letting her crawl into his lap and curl up. He smiled and began to pet her, his gaze landing on the fire and watching it flicker, he mostly sat in silence listening to the sound the fire made of the small crack of the wood here and there.

He knew night was coming when he looked up at the clock above the door and couldn’t help but smile and set Nina on the ground beside him and pushed her to run off and sit in the corner where he knew she always slept. He stood and began digging around his small cave pulling out a cloak, he had stupidly gone back to Pogtopia and was surprised no one was there but had taken what he thought he’d need which was just some spare clothes and bandages. “Looks like it’s time to check out what’s happening in L’Manburg” He mutters to himself.


	2. What's A Galaxy?

Tommy stood at the edge of the crater staring down into it at the gravestone, things have changed slightly since the last time he’s been here and Tommy was a little curious as to what. The gravestone from where Tommy could see it had grass surrounding it and flowers planted across the grass around it, Tommy couldn’t help the small crown that crossed his lips and the way his hands clenched into fists. He made his way down to the bottom of the crater climbing down using small holes in the walls and rocks and ledges to step on on his way down. Once he was at the bottom of the crater he moved forward and once he stood in front of him he felt sorrow seep into him.

He could end this all here, just wait here until sunrise were he’d be found by either Tubbo, Phil or Dream who usually visited during the early mornings while Wilbur, Techno visited during the night but it was far past the time they visited so he didn’t have to worry about running into them while he was here.

**TommyInnit**

**April 9th 2004 - November 16th 2020**

**“A friend, a brother, a son, a fighter but mostly importantly. He was a hero”**

Tommy could feel the sorrow and fear in him deepen as he stared at his own gravestone at the bottom of this crater where L’manburg once stood. It felt ironic, his own death stone built and made in the crater of a nation once standing tall and proud now nothing but an empty hole in the ground put there by his own brothers and even some former friends. It was almost laughable in his own eyes but the ‘Hero’ he read at the end of the sentence written onto the gravestone’s surface made his fists clench.

He didn’t know why but he brought out his knife and sat down in front of the gravestone scratching out the  ‘Hero’ in the sentence feeling a pang of guilt afterwards. The others would obviously notice it but he couldn’t bring himself to continue thinking about them and instead stood back up walking towards the edge of the crater he stopped and hid in the shadows behind a rock, crouching low so he wasn’t seen.

He watched as Eret and Fundy stepped forward, he was a little surprised since he’s never seen them come here before. He frowned when he realized if he stood there any longer they would have seen him, he sighed and pulled up his inventory looking through it and was happy when he found a blindness potion, he didn’t want to take the chance and wanted to be prepared for anything that could happen.

“Someone scratched at the gravestone” He heard Fundy mutter but with the silence that hung in the night his words were almost perfectly clear. 

Eret huffed. “Tubbo’s going to be pissed” He responded crossing his arms, Tommy couldn’t see his expression due to the glasses Eret always wore and the fact there was no lighting whatsoever but he could see the faint glow from underneath the lenses because of Eret’s glowing white eyes.

“I miss him” He heard Fundy say and his heart clenched and tears pooled at the corner of his eyes. “Even if he got on my nerves a lot I miss the kid” Fundy sighed running a hand through his orange hair.

“We all miss him,” Eret sighed. “There are a lot of things I regret one of them being not able to help or save Tommy but I guess that's something we all regret” Eret’s voice got continuously quite as he spoke until his voice died out. Tommy didn’t know why but he couldn’t continue to stand here and listen to them, the guilt in him eating away at him until he threw the blindness potion watching their eyes widen in surprise and began to try and look around.

“Who’s there!” He doesn’t stay for long and throws an ender pearl up to the edge of the crater, surprised he actually hits the landing when he teleports standing just barely inches from the edge. He blinks a few times before he’s sprinting back in the direction of his small base.

[-----]

Tommy wasn’t sure what to do after that and spent the next three days in his small cave. He didn’t do much and just sat around feeding Nina and actually bringing Butter’s, Corn, Titan and Willow back to the meadow with Nina tagging along. Tommy was never one to be extra caution mostly because he was confident in his abilities as a fighter but after everything that's happened he was per say extremely unsure, he wasn’t strong enough to beat Wilbur, Dream or Techno sure he excelled in fighting back when he was in the academy before he began exploring different worlds. 

Dream, Techno and Wilbur didn’t grow up the way he did, Tommy never talked much about his life before the Dream SMP not even about SMP Earth were him, Techno, Phil and WIlbur were somewhat not on good terms. He grew up privileged and threw that all away when he decided to travel, he grew attending the best academy’s that offered the highest educations, his parents did everything they could to get him high up in the world and yet he threw that all away to become some traveler.

And look where that all got him. Faking his own death in the wither fight and in hiding in the forest away from his friends, if his parents could see him now they’d most likely be disappointed.

Tommy sighed as he stood up picking up his sword and holstering it to his hip. He called out to Nina who perked up before standing and running over to the door and scratching at it, he snorted and pushed the door open and watched her sprint in the direction of the meadow. He followed after her quickly and made it to the meadow a lot quicker than he would if he walked.

The minute he got near the center he stopped, dropping to the ground and spreading out his arms above his head and staring up at the sky above him watching as clouds passed one after the other in complete silence. 

His mind wandered back to his life before he started to travel, he was one of eleven children, his oldest siblings were a group of triplets then came his two older sisters who were born solo, then came him and after were the two twins then finally his three youngest sisters who were all triplets. Him and his two older sisters Titan who was two years older than him and Tian who was one year older than him were the only solo births their mother had before they’re parents decided to stop having kids.

Before that their parents always pressured them to work hard and be the best it was always so suffocating including when he was still young where his parents wouldn’t be particularly happy when they did something wrong. He was always closer to Titan and Tian because they were solo births and didn’t have siblings that grew up alongside each other. The oldest triplets Thomas, Theon and Tina had already graduated from college and didn’t spend time with him or his older sisters. As for the twin’s, Tommy’s two younger brothers they were just as loud and annoying as Tommy was when he was younger.

When the triplets his younger sisters came around that drew the attention from his brothers and they resorted to bothering him, but now that he looked at it he understood. He did the same to his two older sisters because he was lonely and wanted affection and that was something they gave him so he did his best growing up to give his two younger brothers his attention but it was hard while he was training and studying he still felt guilt for leaving but Titan had done the same when she got the chance, Tommy’s chance came sooner than hers though.

The neglect was bad and he was extremely clingy and he knew this but he’d never admit it to anyone. Tommy shot up to a sitting position when he heard footsteps, his gaze landing on someone he thought he’d never see. “Schlatt?” He asked, tilting his head up to look at him more closely.

Schlatt stared back at him with an equally surprised expression but Tommy could see the relief in his eyes. “It’s really you kid?” Schlatt said tilting his head down to get a better look at Tommy. Tommy knew his hair was slightly longer than it usually was cause he hadn’t bothered to cut it but he had bothered to keep it clean, Schlatt himself wasn’t wearing a suit and was dressed in normal slacks and a light blue button up shirt slightly wrinkled and messed up. “I thought you died,” Schlatt said his voice sounding slightly strained.

  
“And I thought they kept you prisoner,” Tommy retorted knowing they had restrained Schlatt and got him underwraps while Tubbo was giving his speech.

“I escaped during the wither fight” Schlatt told him, his voice wavering slightly. “I-i saw the grave stone, I thought you were dead kid”

“Well I’m here, right in front of you ain’t I” Tommy responded raising an eyebrow at the man, he was particularly angry at Schlatt, sure the man exiled him but that didn’t warrant much hate since he’s been through a lot that he knows hating Schlatt wouldn’t change a thing.

“I know you're here!” Schlatt snapped. “But why?! Why aren’t you back with the others if your alive”

Tommy stopped realizing what Schlatt meant, he sighed and ran a hand through his hair and motioned for Schlatt to sit in front of him. Schlatt stared at him before he sat down in front of him, legs crossed giving him an expectant look. 

“I just need time,” He whispered. “All this fighting, all this conflict I never wanted a part of it. Techno said ‘You wanna be a hero’ but that wasn’t what I wanted I wanted my home back and he’s an idiot for thinking otherwise, this whole war was never about me being a hero it was always about gaining back the home I wanted and never had growing up” Schlatt gave him a look and Tommy laughed. “I’m the middle child out of eleven kids”   
  


Schlatt blinked before his eyes widened. “God damn your parents don't know what protection is” He joked light heartedly despite their conversation and Tommy couldn’t help but smile.

“They were assholes” He snorted. “Me and my two older sisters Titan and Tian were the only solo births, the others are a pair of twins and two pairs of triplets, we were all pressured by our parents to be the best, it sucked” Schlatt’s expression turned to pity and something else Tommy couldn’t really pick up but knew it was there, another thing that's changed about him that he’s better at reading people a bit. Being alone for sometime now makes him realize how little he looks at his surroundings and it is aware of.

“Sounds rough” Schlatt muttered. Tommy nods and they sit in silence. “I understand where you're coming from though kid” Tommy looks at Schlatt having to lift his gaze from the grass he had been twirling around his fingers. “You're 16 a few months younger than Tubbo, but yet some mature for your age because of all the shit you’ve been through. I don’t blame you and for what it’s worth I’m sorry for exiling you”

Tommy sighed for what felt like the millionth time this day. He felt warm and light like something just broke and couldn't help but smile. “It’s fine, and just so you know I don’t hate you never did and probably never will because hating wasn’t going to make a difference in the grand scheme of things” He shrugged.

Nina came barreling over to them stepping onto Tommy’s shoulders and curling around them. “Nina!” He yelped as he hunched his back slightly. Schlatt snorted.

“Your fox kid?” He asked. Tommy nodded and pulled Nina off his back and placed her in his lap with a smile.

“This is Nina,” He responded, Schlatt nodded before he stood and shoved his hands into the pockets of his slacks.

“Got a place to crash kid?” Schlatt asked.

Tommy nodded. “I can show you, you're more than welcomed. I know for a fact you're not going to tell the others since your basically still there enemy. I’m not ready for them to know I’m here” Schlatt nodded and Tommy stood Nina jumping off his lap before he stood up. She bolted in the direction of their home and Tommy followed Schlatt trailing behind the both of them.

It didn’t take long to get there and once inside Schlatt whistled. “Did some working kid?” Schlatt said, looking at the farms and the chests.

“Yep” Tommy responded. “I should have some spare blankets and shit around here” He said, digging through his chests to try and find the items he needed.

[-----]

The next day Tommy woke up to the sound of snoring and couldn’t help but groan as he realized how loud Schlatt was being. He didn’t say anything and just ran a hand through his hair that went almost to his shoulders, he picked up his pillow and threw it at Schlatt who yelped and fell off his bed. He watched as Schlatt groaned and sat up rubbing the back of his head.

“Since you're staying here” Tommy sighed. “Your going to help me with crops and then cooking because we're gonna need a lot more food for the two of us”

“Fine” Schlatt sighed as he stood up dusting off his shirt to get rid of the small pieces of dirt that clung to it from the floor.

“You harvest the wheat I’ll get the potatoes” Tommy said, Schlatt nodded as Tommy moved over to the Potatoes and began picking up the ones that were fully grown and leaving the ones that had yet to fully grow.

Once they were done Tommy made sure the potatoes were put away in the barrel before he began digging through another barrel he stored mostly bread and appes in tossing some bread to Schlatt who stood off to the side watching him. “You seem more calm than usual,” Schlatt pointed out after taking a bite of the bread.

Tommy shrugged as he flopped back down on his bed sitting cross legged while Schlatt sat on the ground in front of his bed staring at the fire his shoulders slightly slumped. “There’s nothing for me to be mad at, plus things have changed a little since I’ve been able to actually think” Tommy responded.

Nina came walking over to Schlatt and stared up at the man obviously curious as to who he was and why he was in their home but didn’t do anything and instead turned her attention to him. Tommy stared back at the pure white fox with a questioning gaze, the bee’s were already out and about floating around the room seemingly just as bored as Tommy was.

“So what's with the Bee's?” Schlatt asked.

“This one is Butters” He points to the one floating above the Beehive. “That one is Willow” he points to the one floating above Schlatt’s knee. “This one is Corn” He points to the one floating next to Tommy’s head. “And the final one is Titan” he points to the one next to the door. “And there my friends” He shrugs, not really sure how to explain to Schlatt that he took in a bunch of Bees. Over the past days he’s had them around they’ve grown bigger, almost bigger than his hand which is to be expected.

“Now come on” Tommy huffed as he stood up moving over to the door and pulling on his shoes, Schlatt didn’t say anything and instead followed after him, pulling on his own shoes. Tommy led him in the direction of a river, it was pretty early and only a little bit past dawn so they had a lot of time before the others woke up and didn’t have to worry about really getting spotted since they wouldn’t come searching these part of the woods unless their looking to expand L’manburg.

Once they were at the river Tommy sat down at the edge and pulled out a stick that was obviously sharpened at the end. “What are we doing?” Schlatt asked in question as he sat down beside the kid.

Tommy pulled off his shoes and rolled up the ends of his shorts so they were higher and stepped into the water sharpened stick in hand. “We're getting fish, here” Tommy responded, tossing him a sharp stick. Schlatt raised an eyebrow and sighed standing up and pulling off his shoes and rolling up his pants until they were just above his knees.

  
The river was rather deep reaching to above Tommy’s knee’s but not touching his shorts while Schlatt was taller than Tommy by a bit but not much so the water barely touched his pants and stopped just below his knees. Schlatt watched as Tommy stood a bit away from him squinting at the water before he charged forward and lifted his sharpened stick and brought it down. He grinned as he brought it up a fish impaled through its side on the stick. “Nice catch” Schlatt muttered a little bit shocked but it didn’t last for long.

Schlatt had some trouble since he wasn’t really used to standing in cold water and trying to catch fish this way was a lot faster but a bit tedious if you were asking him. He didn’t voice this though since Tommy was having fun and he didn’t really want to ruin that, the kid was out here on his own for some piece of quiet not to hear one of his former enemies complain to him about having to catch fish manually.

The thought made him snort, but his amusement was quickly replaced with slight frustration as he missed yet another fish. “Having trouble Big S” Tommy snickered. Schlatt glared at the kid who stood in the center of the river while Schlatt now stood near the edge with a barrel next to him filled with fish. He looked into his inventory and smiled and pulled out some random item which just so happened to be some random compass he had and threw it at the kid, his eyes widening and quickly ducking and avoiding the compass but getting his shorts wet in the process.

“Oh come on you know how long it takes for these things to dry” He hears the kid complain as he turns to the barrel to count the fish.

“You’ll live,” Schlatt respondes. “I think we might have enough fish though,” He said. Tommy moves over to him looking into the barrel and nodding his head and stepping out of the river, Schlatt quick to follow not at all enjoying the freezing water. Tommy puts a lid onto the barrel and picks up his shoes, about to pick up the barrel but is stopped when Schlatt picks it up holding it over his shoulder. “I’ll carry it, grab my shoes will ya?” Schlatt asked.

“Sure” Tommy responded and picked Schlatt’s shoes up, both of them walking in the direction of the base they now technically shared. Entering they were greeted by Nina who began frantically running around for no reason, she bolted out the door before it closed.

“I’ll let her back in after a bit,” Tommy sighed, shaking his head at his odd animals. He set their shoes down on the ground beside the door and moved over to a chest and began digging through it. Schlatt sat down on the ground, eyes on the fire after he set down the barrel near the furnaces.

He was a little surprised when a minute later Tommy sat beside him obviously a little worn out after gathering all the fish. He expected Tommy to be a bit more cautious around him after everything he had done to him and Wilbur practically threw them out of their country, almost publicly executed his best friends and drove away his vice president Quackity.

Schlatt wasn’t an idiot and knew that with all this war it was obvious how touch-starved Tommy could be or was and it was probably worse thanks to being away from others for a month and four days without others to rely on to give him the affection a person needs. Schlatt himself hasn’t had any physical contact with another person in a while either, the only form of affection or warmth he’s felt before is when Fundy made a joke about him being a father figure to Tubbo and after thinking over it for so long he deeply regretted almost killing Tubbo.

Without much thought on the outcomes of his actions he lifted his arm wrapping it around Tommy’s shoulder and pulling him closer, it was obvious Tommy was surprised from the way he tensed but it didn’t take him long to relax into his side hug. “Thanks” Tommy muttered.

  
“No problem kid” He sighed feeling a large amount of guilt seep into him.


	3. Without It's Brightest Star

Tommy didn’t know why he had done it, he had been sitting there in complete silence phone in hand until he decided to end this little charade once and for all. He had sent a message out to Tubbo and then dropped his phone onto the bed pulling on a clock making sure the hoodie was up and made his way to L’manburg’s crater.

He got there in record time and enderpearl down to the bottom stumbling on his feet slightly but he gained balance pretty quickly. It was just barely sunrise and everything was completely silent, he made his way over to his gravestone standing in front of it staring down at the writing engraved across its surface.

  
He waited in silence for what felt like hours, days, months maybe even years but the silence was broken when he heard voices. He couldn’t help the sad smile that stretched across his lips as he began to sing the song he remembered as footsteps got closer.

“I heard there was a special place

Where men could go and emancipate

The brutality and tyranny of their rulers

Well this place is real you needn’t fret with

Wilbur, Tommy, Tubbo, Eret

It’s a very big not blown up L’manburg”

He could tell they were standing a few feet behind him silent and unmoving. He couldn’t help the tears that gathered in the corner of his eyes.

“My L’manburg

My L’manburg

My L’manburg

My’Lamburg”

“For freedom and For Liberty

Our nation sought to build on these

A victory for all under democracy

Well the darkness came and then it went

We built a home and watched it sink

And from the rubble

There emerged L’manburg”

He turned on his heels to face his friends pushing down his hoodie, tears falling down his cheeks as he gave a small smile to the people he cared about their expressions of shock evident on their faces.

“With bloodied hands

And weakened knees,

Our people rose like

The phoenix,

Our empty fields and canals ‘round

L’Mantree.

With sweat and tears we armed our ranks,

We laid foundations in our land,

And from every lips from here on up to infinity.”

“My L’Manburg

My L’Manburg

My L’Manburg

My L’Manburg”

They all stood in complete silence until Tommy sighed and opened his arms watching as Tubbo let tears cascade down his face. “Don’t just stand there you idiot” He huffed laughing which was cut off by his soft sniffling.

  
That was all Tubbo needed as he surged forward, barreling into him and almost knocking them over. Tommy felt Tubbo’s arm wrap around his lower back as he wrapped his arms around Tubbo’s neck burying his face in Tubbo’s hair. The hug was quickly joined by Fundy, Eret and Niki who shot forward, almost knocking both of them over.

They stayed like this for a few moments before Tubbo and then pulled away Tubbo quickly cupping his face in his hands still crying. “It’s you right, we're not going crazy,” Tubbo muttered.

“One and only” He snorted, lifting a hand to place over Tubbo’s, he couldn’t help but grin. Tubbo pulled away when Phil, Wilbur and Techno stepped forward, all three still looking at him in disbelief especially Techno. Tommy stared at the three, they stood in silence until Tommy barreled into Phil arms wrapping around him, Phil returned the hug Wilbur and Techno crowding around him. He could hear Wilbur softly crying and could feel how Techno was shaking.

“We missed you so fucking much” Phil whispered his wings wrapping around all three of them.

“To be fair, I missed you guys too” Tommy replied.

“If you were alive then why didn’t you come back?” Wilbur asked, pulling away.

“I needed time to think, after everything that's happened I wanted time alone, to myself. I had a bit of help getting over my guilt of practically faking my death thought. Probably wouldn’t have ever come clean if they didn’t help” Tommy told them.

“You're such an idiot Tommy!” He was surprised when he was put into a headlock by Sapnap who began ruffling his hair.

“Can’t believe you” George muttered joining Sapnap’s side as he let Tommy go. George didn’t do or say anything and instead ruffled Tommy’s hair like Sapnap had done, Dream stepped forward behind them. Tommy couldn’t really tell how Dream felt but that was quickly put to an end when Dream pulled him into a hug arms tight around him, he couldn’t help but smile his tears had finally subsided and he returned the embrace feeling nothing but warmth.

“It’s good to have you back,” Dream sighed. He heard the agreements from Bad, Skeppy and the few others who stood slightly off to the side. “After all, what's a galaxy without it’s brightest star?” Dream added, ruffling his hair probably smiling behind his mask and those words got the tears going again.

“You're such a sap, D-dream” Tommy responded, his voice cracking although he’d never admit it.


End file.
